Tremulous Hinge

by Adam Giannelli

Rain intermits, bus windows steam up, loved ones suffer from dementia—in the constantly shifting, metaphoric world of Tremulous Hinge , figures struggle to remain standing and speaking against forces of gravity, time, and language. In these visually porous poems, boundaries waver and reconfigure along the rumbling shoreline of Rockaway or during the intermediary hours that an insomniac undergoes between darkness and dawn. Through a series of self-portraits, elegies, and Eros-tinged meditations, this hovering never subsides but offers, among the fragments, momentary “moths all swarming the / same light bulb.”

From the difficulties of stuttering to teetering attempts at love, from struggling to order a hamburger to tracing the deckled edge of a hydrangea, these poems tumble and hum, revealing a hinge between word and world. Ultimately, among lofting waves, collapsing hands, and darkening skies, words themselves—a stutterer's maneuvers through speech, a deceased grandfather’s use of punctuation—become forms of consolation. From its initial turbulence to its final surprising solace, this debut collection mesmerizes. 
 

Genres: Poetry

90 pages, Paperback

Published April 15, 2017

Reviews

[Always Pouting · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not quite sure how to review poetry because it's such a personal thing, especially for me the experience is much more emotional so I'm not really sure how to put into word what it was that I enjoyed about this collection of poetry. There was a lot of amazing imagery in the poems which is something I really enjoy in poetry because imagery can capture a feeling and create a certain tone really well, much more than explicitly trying to describe an experience. The cadence of the words, at least as I read them in my head, was also something I enjoyed very much. The rhythm of words in poetry adds a lot to the feeling behind it for me as well. There were some very clever lines also and I really enjoyed the emphasis on imagery of nature, nature always seems to draw out much more visceral reactions in me. I felt it was a really promising collection and I think that Giannelli can write even better poetry honestly, I would totally read future poetry from him.

[Hirdesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks for Netgalley and respective publisher.

It was quite touchy and simple poetry.
However, some phrases shows the real depth of the poetry and respective theme.
I've enjoyed throughout the whole book with its contented piece of words and sparkling of emotions in almost all phrases.
Some poems were extremely compelling, I had lost completely though they had shown my own emotions of past.

Few Great Lines-

* ""in the fog of forgetfulness they forgot fullness of fog""

* "The light isn;t only lit. The light
waves, the light sits and weights,the light houses
and the spot:
light : a shady node, coffee
and crackers, granite
skirted with leaf."

* "TOUCH me on the shoulder
and it means memory ;
touch me on the elbow,
and it means come follow-"

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carried by the current of change that we all must follow; Adam Giannelli navigates the uncertainty of time and place even as he (we) try to find rest with others in a place we can call our own.

[MJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book of poetry was lovely. I adore the integration of nature, the environment, and the frequent appearance of the moon. I feel this work pulls the reader into the author's world filled with flora and fauna. Simply a great read to remind us of relationships and what the seasons have to offer.

[Golden Girl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful poems! Beautiful cover! The book drew me in with the genuineness of the first poem, "Stutter." The poetry continued to hold me with the poems that followed, including "Hydrangea," "My Insomnia," "Star Gazers," and "The Phone Call." Wonderful book of poems!

[Paddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many of the poems are moving. Others are thought-provoking.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary. Insightful. Touching. Poignant. Outstanding first effort by an up-and-coming talent.

[Tiffany Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

The poems of Tremulous Hinge are delightful in their play with theme and form; poet Adam Giannelli has a clear love of language and continuously utilizes it in an interesting way. Words become their own preoccupation in the text, being elaborated upon, challenged, and measured against each other in a manner both artful and thoughtful (which is to say that it never becomes too heavy-handed and meta-referential). This play with form is most apparent on a sentence-by-sentence basis, as Giannelli's skillfully deploys assonance, consonance, alliteration, et al. As a result, a number of the poems practically demand to be read aloud.

Striking images also populate the text, providing an artful sense of illustration to themes as widely varying as stuttering, loss, love and the myriad ways in which we find solace and consolation. Each poem is deftly felt and witnessed, often distilling particular moments into verse in a way that feels tonally similar to haiku, even if the poem itself is multi-stanza and/or free verse.

Giannelli's poems are carefully crafted with an impeccable alignment of details, making Tremulous Hinge an exciting and fresh debut poetry collection.

Thank you to NetGalley and the University of Iowa Press for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for review.

[Beatrix · Rating 4 out of 5]

The eyes are not doors.
They are small containers.
They cannot hold the moon,
but they hold its flare.
They cannot hold the departed, but they hold their names --
Dom, Julius, Caroline.

Sometimes, you just need some poetry. To remind you why you love reading so much.
I enjoyed this, this was just what I needed.

I walk with the crowd, past lucid curtains and the passions of laundromats. Alone so long, I am everyone.

Words. In poetry there can be no redundant words, every word has its particular purpose; here the author obviously paid great attention where to place which words. I also liked how different poems had different forms; some rhymed, some didn't. Some were written in stanzas, some in long sentences without any capital letters.

Final conclusion: I would recommend this.

The way we look at the stars, the stars look at us, and make constellations - not of our lives, skittish, but our deaths, dark and steadfast.

*A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I never knew ecstasy could arrive at so many angles.'

This line perfectly encompassed my feelings as I fell through the words of Adam Giannelli, the winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize, in his new volume, Tremulous Hinge. I feel so many times as though I turned translucent and the words flowed through me naming me a million times. The author clearly bears a love for all English language and very much loves baring the sins and glories of such in every way that he can.

The images evoked by the words of his lines are enough to make one feel as thought they've, again, come to the time of their life where you are falling in to love, falling out of love, experiencing loneliness, death, the struggle to define what identity is and the path of how to find it, before, during, and after one does. This is gorgeous and it we find ourselves in the world and brings as, it's said best in Sealevell;

"Say it in one breath; home"


Thank you to Netgalley and University of Iowa Press for this advanced copy.

[Ken]

Giannelli is an Iowa Poetry award-winner who's still plying the nature trade a la Frost. In this day and age, that's actually unusual among poets. Poetry magazines these days want more realpolitik, voices of minorities, Horton hears #metoo. And so, reading these often rich pieces (in some cases, too much so, like the heavy scent of lilacs) is a bit of an old-fashioned jolt.

Me, I like both the new and the old tendencies, but if you feel like you're getting too much of one or the other, this collection might best be embraced for variety. Or avoided in favor of novelty.

[Sarah Katz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A couple excellent poems in here—I loved “Stutter” in particular. I was slightly disappointed that the collection didn’t stay with this focus more explicitly, but that’s a personal preference, not the fault of the author!

[Ryann Crofoot · Rating 4 out of 5]

*I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
**See more reviews and bookish fun at Ryann the Reader

The short version: This was an amazing collection of poetry! While there was a poem or two that kind of threw me off, it's no surprise that Giannelli's collection won the Iowa Poetry Prize.

The long version: The very first poem of Adam Giannelli's collection was enough to draw me in to Tremulous Hinge. The entire collection portrays a sense of longing, though for what exactly is sometimes unclear. But as the speaker seeks the things missing from his life, he strengthens and forms new connections to the people and things around him. One of my favorite quotes from the first poem, "Stutter," is a perfect example of the longing that pervades the collection: "since I can't say everlasting/ I say every/ lost thing" I could go on for days about all of the perfect lines I loved in this book, but, for now, I'll leave it at that.

Through the entire book, it is clear that Giannelli really knows the English language, and uses it to create lines, metaphors, and a musicality that all work to enchant his readers and keep them wanting more. There were so many poems in this book where I found myself holding my breath while reading because I didn't want even the sound of my own breathing to interfere with the way the poems sounded in my head.

This collection was almost perfect, but the few poems with floating lines and inconsistent indentation really threw me for a loop. While you could argue that this was the point of those poems (because a tremulous hinge would create a sort of stuttering connection), for me, it tore me right back out of the pages, and broke the enchantment I had been under.

But, since even my only critique is subjective, it's safe to say this is an incredible collection of poetry, and I would highly recommend it. With a beautiful cover and beautiful poems, I can't wait to get a hardcopy for my own shelf!

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

(or wherein I once again prove that the parts of poetry which intrigue me may not be what I am supposed to be talking about)

You know what I really appreciated about Tremulous Hinge: the layout of some of the poems. Like the indentation. Seriously. Or there'd be a thin poem, maybe only eight or nine spaces worth of letters on each line. Then each verse would be only lines long and it would be these little rectangles like a path down the page.

I can hear one of my high school English teacher's sarcasm right now: That's what you think is important about poetry?

Yes. I mean, how do the poets know
where to end lines and
how much to
indent?

So I read Tremulous Hinge and thought about that. The poems that were over a page were too long and could have been tightened. One poem mentioned a Catholic grandfather, which made me think of my Catholic grandfather. The poems felt working class, close houses, thin walls lacking insulation (I don't mean that in a negative way, because I read what I just wrote and it sounds super classist. I mean more like you felt you were walking through that sort of neighbourhood as you read the words; some of the poems drew the scene like a photograph).

I wonder how one becomes a poet. It's so different than how I see the world. Sometimes I feel like an alien when I read poetry. I didn't mind so much with Tremulous Hinge though.

Tremulous Hinge by Adam Giannelli went on sale April 15, 2017.

I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tremulous Hinge by Adam Giannelli is the winner of the 2016 Iowa Poetry Prize. Giannelli's poems have appeared in the Kenyon Review, New England Review, Ploughshares, FIELD, Yale Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Tremulous Hinge opens strong with the poem that sets the stage for the rest of the collection -- "Stutter." The poet recites all the things he couldn't say and in that mix comes:

since I can’t say everlasting
I say every
lost thing

He says other things for what he can't say. Ohio instead of Cleveland. He wants pistachio ice but takes the pronounceable hazelnut ice instead. There is a lost thing in not being able to say what you mean. But in writing, the words flow and through the rest of the collection, they flood the reader with wonder. There is an elegance in the written word and in being able to fully express one's self. Perhaps it is like the myth that losing one sense makes the other's more sensitive. His loss of expression in speech makes writing more graceful:

On the citronella candle, a flame glistens
like the tip of a paintbrush
dipped in amber.
It fans out, flattened in the wind,
brush on canvas—
~Sealevel

Reading the poems I had a feeling of reading Leaves of Grass. Not in the subject matter but in that feeling of getting lost in the words as they flowed by and their patterns. There is no formal structure in the writing, but it is unmistakably poetry.

Our love
appoints its kingdom,
but gravity does not elect
or refrain; it effects
its spell over hammer and feather
alike, pebble and petal,
so each at the same rate
falls.
~Gravity

The poet may speak with a tremulous voice but he writes with unwavering confidence. Giannelli's writing reminds the reader what poetry is about. Although sometimes hard to define, poetry still has its roots using language as an enchanted tool expanding words beyond their simple denotations. Tremulous Hinge is such a work. If it found its way into the hands of Whitman, Burke, Shelley, or Byron it would be instantly recognized as poetry. Easily the best poetry I have read this year.

[Luca Nuca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Giannelli’s revelatory debut collection brings us to tenderly revise our perceptions of reality and our purchase on language through its probing, if patient attention to the materials of the world as well as through its unflinching commitment to poetic craft. A whole universe blooms in the pages of this book, variously populated by objects suddenly restored to view - deer, hydrangeas, a porcupine, aspens and spruces - swaying to the insistent rhythm of the ocean. In turn, memories of loved ones are rescued through a sequence of meditative poems, rendered with an economy and intensity of language worthy of the elegiac precision of a De Chirico interior. Throughout his collection, Giannelli’s grasp of the body brilliantly translates perceived frailty - aging, illness, frisson, the slippages of its articulations through language or memory - into radiance. With the line “there are no fragments, only wrinkles” the poet captures the crucial tension of his project, the flutter that change, registered as intractable loss or as hopeful renewal generates in human consciousness. Whether modulating expression via anagrammatic transformations or pausing to consider striations, curls, electromagnetic frequencies and oceanic waves, he unveils for us the vibrant nature of matter and of experience forever teetering on the verge of being lost or, perhaps, just burgeoning. Through its panoply of fortuitous images and metaphors, this book invites us to listen to our inner hum as to the quiet crumbling of things around us not as a portent of loss, but as the only palpable proof of our being.

[Natalie Homer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tremulous Hinge was wonderfully refreshing for me. These poems are accessible and unassuming, but also elegant—almost feminine. It’s the kind of book you can read quickly in one gulp, but at the same time, you’ll want to linger on each poem and let its nuances unfold with every additional reading.

[Terresa Wellborn · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this collection, Giannelli evokes atmosphere and loss through light, hyrangeas, fathers, deer.

Some stunning poems here, my favorites being:
p. 3: Stutter
p. 35: Aspens in Wind
p. 37: Passage
p. 69: Plea for Interlude

[Amanda Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meticulous attention to language. Some really lovely moments.

[Julia Kerrigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I cannot love what doesn't/fret or crumble or grow cold./
I cannot bear to love what does.”

[Maren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had Adam for one semester of poetry in 2024 but I sucked at it then. This book makes me wish I could clear my name to him like I got so much better please believe me!!

[Chin-Sun Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable collection. I found these poems full of wistfulness, wonderment, and enormous empathy. So many good ones, but some particular loves: 'How the Light Is Spent,' 'Reflections,' and the parting comfort of 'The Opposite of Sugar.'

[M- S__ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for feedback and review.

This collection starts out really strong. Gianelli injects interesting questions and meaning into some of these poems. Stutter is easily the best poem of the book and shows off this singular and unique voice that you don't really hear in much of the rest of the collection. I've come back to that poem a couple times since I got the book, but I think the collection as a whole is sadly a little forgettable. There are a few too many poems that just kind of act as filler. No major criticisms. It's worth the read, but definitely only if you read a good amount of poetry already.

[Margaryta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall a nice atmosphere to the collection, but "Tremulous Hinge" makes it hard to latch on to a specific poem. The beginning I thought was much stronger, in fact, than the later poems, which seemed to pitter out as if from exhaustion. The style also got a bit unusual at times, the floating lines and jagged indentations coming across more random than anything else. One is left with a pleasant feeling after reading Giannelli's poems, if a bit confused and unsure of what the expected reaction or takeaway was.

[Anika Shumway]

I heard Adam Giannelli read his work and knew instantly that he was a poet I needed to read more of. He spins words together in fascinating and colorful arrangement; like beads on a string, his words, rich and savory on their own, coalesce into lines and stanzas of tangible images and scenes and people, their lives tinted by the poetic lens. Giannelli excels in imbuing his lines and overall poems with a sense of fluidity and belonging. John Keats once wrote “That if Poetry comes not as naturally as the Leaves to a tree it had better not come at all.” Giannelli’s work in Tremulous Hinge resonates with that assertion. Undoubtedly he worked and revised and redrafted and repeated the whole process again, but the final product is worth the steep climb. His lines seem so natural, so effortless; reading his work is like seeing the world under a whole new light but one your subconscious knew was there all along.

In fact, that is one of Giannelli’s strengths, beyond his craft with the actual stringing together of words. His work rings true to human experience. So many lines in Tremulous Hinge I read and thought, “I’ve never thought of it that way, but that’s exactly how it is.” I loved feeling like Giannelli had lived bits and pieces of my life and put them on the page for me to see. I loved too that through his poetry, I experienced situations and contexts and relationships I’ve never personally had. His words allow me to be who and where I’ve never been, and that is part of the magic I found in Tremulous Hinge. To anyone looking to read poetry that echoes their own experience of being mortal or that offers a glimpse of the world through someone else’s eyes, Adam Giannelli’s Tremulous Hinge is the book for you.